Connecting Cloudflare or GoDaddy on the DNS page
How to connect your Cloudflare or GoDaddy account to manage DNS records from the panel.
On this page
The “DNS” page (app.blackbox.md/dns, sidebar → “Infrastructure” → “DNS”) links the app.blackbox.md panel to your Cloudflare or GoDaddy account, so you can change your domains' DNS records without going to the provider's own dashboard. The text under the title reads “Connect a DNS provider and manage records for your domains.”
Available to: the blackbox.md account holder, in the panel opened from “Contul meu” (My account) (Opening the app.blackbox.md panel from your account).
The blackbox.md website is available in Romanian and Russian; this article quotes the Romanian labels with their English meaning.
How it works
- BLACKBOX does not host DNS zones. Your domain's zone stays with Cloudflare or GoDaddy, and the panel reads and changes the records through the provider's API, using the token or key you enter.
- The “DNS” page is free.
- You can have only one connection per provider: one for Cloudflare and one for GoDaddy. Once a provider is connected, its button disappears.
- The connection belongs to your account, not to a specific server.
- Changes take effect only if the domain uses the name servers (NS) of the connected provider. If the domain's DNS is managed somewhere else, change the records there: How to point your domain to the server.
If “DNS management is not available right now.” appears instead of the page content, the service is temporarily unavailable. Come back later. If the message stays, write to us: How to contact BLACKBOX support.
Prepare a Cloudflare token
In the connection form, the panel shows: “Create a token at dash.cloudflare.com → My Profile → API Tokens with permissions Zone → Zone → Read and Zone → DNS → Edit. Only zones the token can access will appear.”
- Sign in at dash.cloudflare.com and open “My Profile” → “API Tokens”.
- Click “Create Token” and choose a custom token (“Create Custom Token”).
- Under “Permissions”, add two rows: “Zone” → “Zone” → “Read” and “Zone” → “DNS” → “Edit”.
- Under “Zone Resources”, choose the domains you want to manage from the panel: one specific domain or all of them.
- Leave “Client IP Address Filtering” empty. The check and the changes are made from BLACKBOX servers, not from your browser, so a token restricted to your IP address will be rejected.
- Create the token and copy it right away: Cloudflare shows it only once.
Use an API token, not the “Global API Key”: the panel accepts only tokens.
Prepare a GoDaddy key
In the connection form, the panel shows: “Create a production key at developer.godaddy.com → API Keys. GoDaddy grants API access to accounts that hold at least one domain.”
- Sign in at developer.godaddy.com with the GoDaddy account that holds your domains, and open “API Keys”.
- Create a new key (“Create New API Key”) and choose the “Production” environment. An “OTE” key (GoDaddy's test environment) does not work: the panel works only with the production API.
- GoDaddy shows two values, “Key” and “Secret”. Copy both.
How to connect a provider
- Open “DNS” in the panel. In the “Connections” section, click “Connect Cloudflare” or “Connect GoDaddy”.
- The form opens, with the help text for the provider you chose.
- In “Label”, you can enter a name for the connection if you like, for example “Company domains”.
- For Cloudflare, paste the token into “API token”. For GoDaddy, fill in “API key” (the Key value) and “API secret” (the Secret value).
- Click “Connect”. The panel checks the details with the provider before saving them.
- If the details are accepted, the form closes and the connection appears in the list with the status “Active”. The panel selects it and loads its zones and records below: Managing DNS records from the panel.
If an error occurs, the message appears in the form, and the fields keep what you entered. To close the form without connecting, click “Cancel”.
| Field | Provider | Rule |
|---|---|---|
| “Label” | both | Optional, up to 120 characters. Without a label, the connection appears under the provider's name. |
| “API token” | Cloudflare | Required, up to 512 characters. The text is hidden as you type. Paste the token without spaces at the beginning or the end. |
| “API key” and “API secret” | GoDaddy | Both required. “API secret” is hidden as you type. |
Security Once saved, the token and the key are stored encrypted and are never shown again. Give the token only the two permissions above, and only for the domains you need.
The connection row
Each connection appears as a row in the “Connections” section. If you have both providers connected, click a row to see that connection's zones below; the selected row is highlighted.
| Item | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Provider badge | “Cloudflare” or “GoDaddy” |
| Name | Your label or, if there is none, the provider's name |
| Account (tooltip “Account” when you hover over it) | Cloudflare: the token's identifier, not the token itself. GoDaddy: godaddy: followed by the first 4 and the last 4 characters of the key. |
| Status | “Active” or “Needs attention” |
| “Last verified: …” | The date and time of the last successful check |
| Last error | The text received from the provider (in English), if the provider rejected the details |
| Status | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| “Active” | The details were accepted, and the provider has not rejected them since | Nothing |
| “Needs attention” | The provider rejected the token or key: it was deleted, expired, was disabled, or lost its permissions. The reason appears as the last error. | Create a new token or key, click “Disconnect”, then connect again. If you fixed the problem at the provider without changing the token or key, click “Verify”. |
The “Verify” button
“Verify” sends the details to the provider again. If they are accepted, the status changes to “Active”, “Last verified” is updated, and the last error disappears. If the provider rejects them, the error message appears in the connection row, and after you reload the page, the connection has the status “Needs attention”.
For Cloudflare, “Verify” only confirms that the token is active. If the token is missing permissions, the problem shows up when the zones load or when you save records.
The “Disconnect” button
- Click “Disconnect” on the connection row.
- Confirm in the window “Disconnect {name}? You can reconnect it later.”, where {name} is the connection's label or the provider's name.
- The connection disappears from the list, and the “Connect Cloudflare” or “Connect GoDaddy” button appears again.
Disconnecting does not change your DNS records: they stay with the provider; the panel just can no longer access them. To reconnect, enter a token or key again.
Important After “Disconnect”, also delete the token in Cloudflare (“My Profile” → “API Tokens”) or the key in GoDaddy (“API Keys”). Only then can the token or key no longer be used.
Error messages
| Message | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| “The provider rejected these credentials.”, followed by the provider's explanation in English | The token or key is wrong, deleted, expired, or lacks the required permissions. For GoDaddy: an “OTE” key or an account without API access. | Create a new token or key following the steps above and connect again |
| “The provider is rate-limiting requests. Try again shortly.” | Cloudflare or GoDaddy has temporarily limited requests | Wait a few minutes, then try again |
| “The provider took too long to respond. Try again.” | The provider did not respond in time or could not be reached | Try again |
| “The provider is temporarily unavailable. Try again shortly.” | The provider responded with an error | Try again later |
| “This provider is already connected.” | You already have a connection to this provider, for example one created in another tab | Reload the page. To change the token or key, disconnect the old connection and connect again. |
| “Too many requests. Try again shortly.” | You exceeded one of the limits in the table below, usually 5 connection attempts in 10 minutes | Stop trying and wait: for connecting, up to 10 minutes after the last attempt. Every attempt made in the meantime extends the block. |
| “Failed to connect the provider.” | A required field is empty, a text is too long (“Label” over 120 characters, “API token” over 512), or another error occurred | Check the fields and try again |
| “Failed to load DNS data.” | Loading the list of connections or the check failed for another reason | Reload the page and try again |
| “Failed to delete.” | Disconnecting failed | Reload the page and try again |
| “Not found” | The connection no longer exists, for example because you disconnected it in another tab | Reload the page |
Limits
| Action | Limit |
|---|---|
| Connecting a provider, including failed attempts | 5 in 10 minutes |
| “Verify”, “Disconnect” and record changes, combined | 60 per minute |
| Loading connections, zones and records | 120 per minute |
All the limits of your account and the panel: The “Too many attempts” message and usage limits.
Frequently asked questions
Can I connect two Cloudflare accounts? No, the panel accepts only one connection per provider. However, one Cloudflare token can cover several domains: you choose them under “Zone Resources”. To switch to another account, click “Disconnect” and connect the new account's token.
My domain doesn't appear in the list of zones. Why? Only the zones the token can access appear. In Cloudflare, the zone must be active, meaning the domain already uses Cloudflare's name servers; in GoDaddy, only active domains appear. Fix the token or the zone at the provider, then click “Refresh” next to “Zone”.
GoDaddy rejects my key, even though I copied it correctly.
Check that you created the key in the “Production” environment. If the provider's explanation mentions denied access (for example, ACCESS_DENIED), the GoDaddy account has no API access. GoDaddy sets the access conditions: check them on developer.godaddy.com. Until then, change the records directly in your GoDaddy account.
How do I change the saved token or key? Click “Disconnect”, then connect the provider again with the new token or key. Saved details cannot be viewed or edited.
The page shows “No DNS connections are linked to your account yet.” and no connect buttons. The panel account you signed in with is not linked to an account on blackbox.md. Open the panel from “Contul meu” (My account) on blackbox.md. If the message stays, write to us.